Transferring apparatus for plywood plates or the like to be treated in a multistage press



, June 3, 1 KEINOSUKE KAJI 2,837,225

TRANSFERRING APPARATUS FOR PLYWOOD PLATES OR THE LIKE TO BE TREATED IN A MULTISTAGE PRESS Filed Nov. 29, 1955 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG.

INVENTOR. KEINOSUKE KAJ! in J.

June 1958 KEINOSUKE KAJl 2,83

TRANSFERRING APPARATUS FOR PLYWOOD PLATES OR THE LIKE TO BE TREATED IN A MULTISTAGE PRESS Filed Nov. 29, 1955 s Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 2

INVENTOR. KEINOSUKE KAJ! June 3, 1958 KEl osu KAJl 2,837,225

TRANSFERRING APPARATUS FOR PLYWOOD PLATES OR HE LIKE TO BE TREATED IN A MULTISTAGE PRESS Filed Nov. 29, 1955 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 FIG?) INVENTOR.

KEINOSUKE KAJI BY M1 46 .ucts' out of the press.

United States Patent TRANSFERRING APPARATUS FOR PLYWOO PLATES OR THE LIKE TU BE TREATED MULTISTAGE PRESS INA (The present invention relates .to a transferring apparatus for plywood plates or the like characterized in that, for. each shelf of a set of multiple feeding shelves which has aduty of first mounting thereon a plywood plate, fiber plate or the like (which shall be known merely as a plywood plate or the. likehereinafter) directly or, in some; cases, through a' receiving plate and then feeding it onto a compressing plate (which may be of a heated type, a normal temperature type or a cooled type) of a multistage press, forward and rearward advaricing and retreating transferring claws or plates (which shall be known merely as transferring claws hereinafter) which will fall so as to slide on the plywood plate beari'ngEsurface atthe time of advance and which will rise automatically or non-automatically so as to release the contactwith the said bearing surface and to keep a predetermined distance from the said surface at the time of retreat are arranged and are connected so as to be operated all, at the same time.

The object of the present invention is to perform two' duties of feeding untreated materials of plywood plates orthe like intoth'e press and of discharging treated prod According to the apparatus of the present invention, simultaneously with treated plywood plates in the press being moved out of the press by means of the forward transferring claws, untreated plywood plates on the feeding shelves can be moved into the .press bymeans of the rearward transferring claws. The transferring'efiiciency is very'high'. In theadvancihg travel of the transferring claws, the forward and rearward transferring claws will always lower until they come into contact with the plywood plate bearing surface. Therefore, the engagement of the transferred plywood plates with the transferring claws is very secure. The sureness of the transferring function is high. Further, when the transfer is over and the transferring claws are in the retreating travel, each transferring claw will automatically or non-automatically rise so as to keep a predetermined distance from the plywood plate bearing surface. Therefore, the retreating movement can be performed very smoothly and lightly. Thus, the apparatus of the present invention is provided with an advantage that plywood plates can be fed and discharged surely and efliciently by a very simple system and has a great efiect of raising the efiiciency in producing plywood plates or the like.

Figs. 1 to 3 are sketches showing the transferringapparatus of the present invention in use. Fig. l is an elevation showing the cross-section on line A--A in Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a plan view showing the cross-section on line B--B in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a left side view of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a detail of the transferring claws and of a part Patented June 3, 1958 of'the system of raising and lowering the transferring claws. g

. Shown in Figs. 1 to 3 is a transferring apparatus wherein front and'rear transferring claws are supported by oscillating supporting arms provided to project from pivots in the rear and are moved up and down byv the movement of the supporting arms oscillated by the rotation of the pivots and wherein a set of multiple discharging shelves is provided on the other side of a press to correspond to a set of multiple feeding shelves, the said press being a multistage hot press in which steamvheated compressing plates or hot plates are used. More particularly, 1 is the frame of a hot press, 2 is a cylinder, 3 is a ram, 4 is push-up plate and 5 is a multistage hot plate. When the ram 3 falls, each hot plate will be separated a predetermined distance .as shown in Fig. 1. However, when the ram 3 rises and the pushup plate thus rises, the hot plates will be pushed up in turnbeginning with the lowest plate, all the hot plates will then be pressed with a predetermined pressure and a plywood plate 6 mounted on each hot plate will be heated and compressed to a finished product. 7 is a steam feeding pipe which feeds steam into each hot plate through a flexible tube 8. 9 is a steam discharging pipe which discharges steam out of each hot plate through a flexible tube 10.

11 is the frame of aset of multiple feeding shelves disposed on one side of the hot press. 12 is a shelf plate. 13 is a wheel. The whole of the set of feeding shelves is mounted on rails 14 and is normally connected to the hot press by means of connecting plates 15 to have its movement prevented but can be withdrawn as required by disengagingthe said connecting plates 15. 16 and 17 are respectively front and rear transferring claws arranged for'each shelf of the set and are attached to oscillating supporting arms 19 fixed at one end on pivot rod 18. 21 is a moving pillar supporting the respective pivot rods 18 from each side so that they are free to rotate. Threaded parts 22 at both upper and lower ends of said pillar 21 are threaded onto feeding screws 23 whichcan be rotated in one direction or the other synchronously. Thus, by the rotation of the feeding screws 23, the said pillar,21 can be advanced toward the press and withdrawn and the front and rear transferring claws 16 and 17 can also be advanced and withdrawn. 24 is a sprocket wheel attached to one end of the screw 23. The sprockets 24 can be rotated synchronously in one direction or in the other by means of an endless chain 26 driven by a reversible motor 25. 27 is a parallel lever fixed to the end of each pivot rod 18, has the other end connected to a common rising and lowering rod 28, rotates the pivot rod 18 in accordance with the rising and lowering movement of the said raising and lowering rod 28 and raises and lowers the front and rearward transferring claws 16 and 17 supported by the said pivot rod 18 through supporting arms 19 and 20. A balancing spring 29 is disposed at the upper end of the rising and lowering rod 28 to prevent the transferring claws from being pressed hard onto the shelf plates 12 by the weights of the transferring claws and the supporting arms 19 and 20. 30 is a bell-crank lever attached to the lower part of the moving pillar. The end 31 of the horizontal arm of the said lever 30 is connected to the lower end of the rising and lowering rod 2 and the end 32 of the vertical arm thereof is connected'to an idle endless chain 33. A sprocket wheel 34 with which the endless chain 33 engages has a brake wheel 35 on the same shaft so as to be always properly braked by a hand brake 36. Therefore, when the chain 33 rotates due to the advancing or withdrawing movement of the bell-crank lever, a resistance will be caused to the movement'of the chain. In the case of either advance or withdrawal of the transferring claws, the movement of the end 32 of the vertical arm of the bellcrank lever connected to the chain will be thereby delayed. The rising and falling rod 28 connected to the end 31 of the horizontal arm will be raised at the time of the advance of the transferring claws and will be low-.

cred at the time of the withdrawal thereof. Thus, the action of pushing down or lifting up the transferring claws 16 and 17 can be attained.

37 is the frame of a set of multiple discharging shelves arranged on the other side of the hot press. 38 is a receiving shelf. 39 is a wheel. The whole of the set of discharging shelves is mounted on rails 40 and is normally connected to thehot press by means of connecting plates 41 to have its movement prevented but can be withdrawn as required by disengaging the said connecting plates 41.

The action of transferring plywood plates in the abovementioned transferring apparatus is performed as follows:

After an untreatedplywood plate 6 is inserted and mounted on each shelf plate 12 of the set of feeding shelves, when the motor 25 is rotated in one direction, the sprocket wheels 24 will be rotated through a transmitting chain 26, the screws 23 to which the said sprocket wheels 24 are attached will be rotated, the moving pillars 21 will be advanced and the front and rear transferring claws 16 and 17 supported by the said pillars 21 will be advanced. In such case, the rising and lowering rods 28 connected through the parallel levers 27 to the pivots 18 on which the transferring claw supporting arms 19 and 20 are provided to project will rise due to the moving resistance of the idle endless chains 33 acting on the bell-crank levers 30 attached to the lower ends of the said rods 28 and therefore the transferring claws 16 and 17 will be pushed down all at the same time and will advance while being properly pressed onto the shelf plates 12 and hot plates 5. Therefore, the engagement of the front transferring claws 16 with the treated plywood plates 6 on the hot plates 5 and the engagement of the rear transferring claws 17 with the untreated plywood plates 6 on the shelf plates 12 can be surely attained. Thus, the plywood plates 6 on the hot plates 5 will be transferred onto the receiving shelves 38 of the set of discharging shelves and the plywood plates 6 on the feeding shelves will be transferred onto the hot plates 5 all at the same time through the state shown by the broken lines in Fig. 2. When the predetermined transferring travel is over, the motor 25 is stopped and the advance of the transferring claws will be stopped.

Now, when the motor 25 is reversed, the screws 23 will rotate in the opposite direction and therefore the front and rear transferring claws 16 and 17 will be withdrawn. In such case, contrary to the above-mentioned case, the rising and lowering rods 28 will lower due to the moving resistance of the idle endless chains 33 acting on the bell-crank levers 30 attached to the lower ends of said rods 28 and the transferring claws 16 and 17 will be pushed up all at the same time, will lose their contact with the shelf plates 12 and the hot plates and will keep a proper distance from them. Thus, the transferring claws can be withdrawn and returned very safely and lightly without the risk of the ends of the forward transferring claws 16 engaging with the plywood plates 6 on the hot plates. When the predetermined transferring travel is over, the motor 25 is stopped and one transferring operation will be completed.

I claim:

A transferring apparatus for plywood sheets and the like to be treated in a multistage press comprising a plurality of oscillating supporting arms, at least two for each stage of the multistage press, one of said two arms having a front transferring claw thereon and the other having a rear transferring claw thereon, a moving support, a plurality of pivot rods rotatably mounted on said moving support and on which pivot rods the ends of said arms are fixedly mounted, said support beingmovable toward and away from the press, a raising and lowering rod, a plurality of parallel levers each fixed at one end to one of said pivot rods and pivoted at the other end to said raising and lowering rod, a balancing spring on the upper end of said rod, a bell crank lever with a center point pivoted on said moving support and having one end connected to the lower end of said rod, and a braked endless chain to which the other end of said bell crank lever is connected, whereby when said moving support is moved toward the press, said bell crank 1ever is'moved and the said other end of the bell crank connected to said endless chain is braked thereby, thus pivoting said bell crank lever and raising said rising and lowering rod and moving said transferring claws down, and when said moving support is moved away from the press, said braked chain holds the said other endof said bell crank lever back and pivots said bell crank in'the opposite direction thereby lowering said rising and falling rod and raising said transferring claws.

References Cited in the file of this patent 

